Who wants to be president of Argentina?

AllenWan

BUENOS AIRES (CBS.MW) - The next president of Argentina is anyone's guess, but some political analysts think that the nation's congress will tap Eduardo Duhalde as the leader of the troubled country as early as Tuesday.

Besides wanting the hot-potato job -- a not so easy to find requirement as Argentina lurches towards its third leader this month -- Duhalde has the political credentials to govern the region's second-largest economy, having served as the governor of the largest province Buenos Aires as well as number-two under former president and current kingmaker Carlos Menem.

"It looks like the congress will vote on a president that will serve two years and...most likely will be Eduardo Duhalde, the Peronist candidate that ran against De la Rua," said Mattie Lolavar, a U.S. business consultant and government adviser.

On Sunday, Adolfo Rodriguez Saa quit after barely a week as interim president, fearing that he was being left out to dry by his own Peronist party as protests over the government's economic policies reignited ahead of March elections.

"The wolves and political lobbies running wild don't understand the spirit of the new times," he said. "They've asked me to do in seven days what hasn't been done in the last 30 years."

House majority leader Eduardo Camano became interim president by default. Normally, the head of the Senate is next in line to become president, but Ramon Puerta quit his post Sunday to avoid inheriting leadership again.

The Argentina congress could select a president as early as Tuesday, but analysts say it could take longer as the power-brokers may decide to appoint a leader to finish out Fernando De la Rua's two-year term.

While Rodriguez Saa enjoyed initial local support for suspending payments on Argentina's foreign debt of $132 billion, other decisions made in the interest of reviving the economy had come under mounting criticism.

A plan to launch a third currency called the argentino was being ridiculed at home and abroad. Afraid to devalue the peso currency and risk the wrath of a suddenly bankrupt populace, the government concocted a halfway measure that pleased no one but confused many. The government was planning to print billions of dollars of argentinos without backing it with any valuable assets, creating an artificial currency that was being devalued even before it was officially launched. See full story.

But it was a decision not to rescind banking restrictions imposed by his predecessor De La Rua that proved to be his undoing. Rodriguez Saa, fearing that recent massive outflows of funds might bleed the financial system dry, maintained a $1,000-per-month limit on how much people can withdraw from banks as well restrictions on transfers of money overseas.

The wildly unpopular measures led to protests that killed 28 people earlier this month and De La Rua's downfall. The country's stock market soared as people withdrew money from the banks on fears that it would be confiscated as the government moved to pay its soaring debts.

Over the weekend, as many as 15,000 residents of Buenos Aires returned to the streets, banging pots and pans, in a repeat of the protests that brought down the government of de la Rua. Twelve policemen were injured as the protest turned violent.

Thirty-two people have been killed and more than a thousand injured in two weeks of violence.

Rodriguez Saa's fate was sealed by the results of a party meeting on Sunday when many Peronist party leaders and provincial governors decided not to show up. Rodriguez Saa had been designated interim president until new elections could be held in March.

Argentina's financial markets were closed most of last week, then fell as much as 10 percent on reopening Friday. The markets are again closed Monday and Tuesday for the New Year's holiday and are scheduled to reopen Wednesday.

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